How many 1/2-ton gutbusters will it take before the shirts are removed from PL?

[kethnaab]

The PL Feds need to put a stop to this ridiculousness. Save the flames and karma bombs if you use a shirt. i'm not criticizing you. If I wanted to win and my opponent is using one, then I'll use one too. The responsibility to keep Mendy and Rych from piercing their lungs with a cracked rib lies with the powerlifting organizations, not the individual lifters. The lifters are just doing what they can to win, just like athletes have been doing forever.

Rych drops 1/2 ton on his ribs and gut because he got out of the "groove" of his shirt.
Mind you, that wasn't HIS benching groove, it was the shirt's groove. The shirt has a groove :eyeroll:

Mendy dumps 1/2 ton on his ribs and gut because, for a good 10 seconds, 1/2 ton lay suspended above his body, and he couldn't do a damn thing about it.

WTF people? The shirts originally were designed to keep the shoulders and RC tight and safe. The shirts are NOT doing that now, they are causing far more harm than protection.

Mendy is a badass, pure, straight up, 100% certifiable badass. Best bench presser of all time. PERIOD. I have nothing but respect for the man, he is a beast among men.

But that bench press shirt BS has to go, and it's up to the Federations to get rid of it.

1/2 ton could not touch. What does that tell you? That tells you that the shirt is supporting over 1000 lbs at the bottom position of the bench press.
Why not just have the lifters lower to a pin that is 3-4" off their chest then press it from there, since that is all they are doing now?

Let's say that again. Mendy couldn't bring 1000 lbs to his chest! and he was PULLING THE DAMN BAR DOWN, yet his rowing strength + 1/2 ton could not force the shirt to lower. That is fucked up, plain and simple.

Before anyone starts ranting about "oh, you've never lifted with a shirt, you don't know what it is", bullshit. I had one of the original Inzer Blast shirts back in 1989. It was tight, but nifty. I managed a 310 bench press with a pause after getting stuck at 295 for 4 consecutive workouts. Buddy of mine convinced me that if I was serious, I'd pick up a shirt, so I did.

Haven't worn it since.

I'm all for protection of the lifters, so I propose this:

1) You have 60 seconds to put the shirt on
2) With shirt on, you must bring an unweighted bar down to touch your chest

If you can't touch an unweighted bar to your chest, then the shirt is not offering support, it is performing part of the lift for you.

An old dude in my first "real gym" (Gold's, PGH PA in North Hills) used to bench with a bench press shirt on all the time, except he put it on himself. I asked him about it, he said that if he can put it on himself, it is just tight enough to allow him to do all the work, while maintaining a nice, tight RC for benching. He had rotator surgery and he said it worked like a charm.

I'll always remember the dude because he looked like Jessie Ventura, and he trained this absolutely adorable tiny little girl who was insanely strong and was a tyrannosaur with the squat and deadlift. She was probably 130-145 lbs, but could hit 3 wheels (IIRC) on the squat with a belt and knee wraps. I tried not to look at her too much, despite desperately wanting to, because I didn't want to catch a barbell across the noggin.

Today's bench press shirts are nothing like that. They're not for protection, they're for padded stat totals, they are for ARTIFICIAL stat totals.

They are to powerlifting what synthol is to bodybuilding. Artificial BS. The only difference is that bench shirts are now far more dangerous.

 

[Devastation]

rychlek wasn't injured after his 1015lb press attempt, which i saw in person. they took him to the hospital as a precaution. i never heard about mendelson getting injured from his last attempts either


however i have heard of many lifters squatting raw and blowing out a knee, benching raw and tearing a pec

everyones entitled to their opinion as i've always said, as you are to yours. but realize this is what powerlifting is TODAY, 2006. now it may change down the road, but this is what it is today

don't like what double layer equipment can do? join a single ply fed. don't want to compete against drug enhanced lifters? lift in a tested division

 

[marcus335]

Well, there are federations that only allow single-ply polyester. That's where I prefer to compete. I'd rather it be more lifter and less gear. Maybe that's just because I'm new to powerlifting and lifting in gear still feels a bit weird to me.

It takes 340 and me pulling just to get my Titan F6 to touch. I bench 315 raw. I haven't really mastered the shirt to see what I can bench in it. I'm pretty sure I can get up into the 400's though.

 

[kethnaab]

i'm not saying to take away the knee wraps for knee protection. I'm even saying that you can keep wearing bench shirts, just not ones that artificially pad the totals while putting the lifters at risk.

Rych and Mendy are lucky. You don't drop 1/2 a ton on your ribs and walk away without thanking God.

I just don't see how people can ridicule bodybuilders for using synthol, and support powerlifting where they are using crap that enhances the lift. it's ridiculous and as we are seeing more and more, pretty damn dangerous.

 

[Chambewy20]

Come on man....

Your entitled to your opinion but you've pretty much expressed in earlier posts that no one will ever be as strong as Coan or Kazmier...

This is not apples to apples, now they have bench only, push pull and single ply shirts that are three times as strong at least as anything produced in the 80's or 90's.

If you want to HATE on all of this crap... go to a different forum becuz it's already fallen on deaf ears around here... remember Roger Maris and Mark Mcguire and Barry Bonds...

come on...it just ain't the same....

 

[kethnaab]

I was moved to write again after watching Mendy dump half a ton on his ribs.

that's scary. and it is CAUSED by the shirt. I don't hate people who use the shirts, as i said, if i wanted to be a "top level competitor" then I would have to use the shirt and I would.

the point is that the federations in charge need to do something about this because it's getting ridiculous and more importantly, DANGEROUS.

 

[fortunatesun]

I don't bench with a shirt, and nowhere near being an expert in this matter, but I'll give an my opinion, which is that I think when someone misses a lift, the shirt automatically gets the blame anyway. If you train with a shirt, then that's as much of the game as any other part is, the frame you were born with or the way you train. The shirt itself only changes the type of lift you're training for- thus the different federations. Everyone will miss the occaisional lift, but blaming the shirt is easier on the ego than any of a dozen other reasons the raw lifter has to resort to. Federov can't blame his stick, Leonardo can't blame his shoes. Your equipment is a factor, but practice makes perfect.

 

[IGNITE]

1/2 ton could not touch. What does that tell you? That tells you that the shirt is supporting over 1000 lbs at the bottom position of the bench press

I couldnt believe this when I seen it, also.

 

[kethnaab]

I don't bench with a shirt, and nowhere near being an expert in this matter, but I'll give an my opinion, which is that I think when someone misses a lift, the shirt automatically gets the blame anyway. If you train with a shirt, then that's as much of the game as any other part is, the frame you were born with or the way you train. The shirt itself only changes the type of lift you're training for- thus the different federations. Everyone will miss the occaisional lift, but blaming the shirt is easier on the ego than any of a dozen other reasons the raw lifter has to resort to. Federov can't blame his stick, Leonardo can't blame his shoes. Your equipment is a factor, but practice makes perfect.

You make very good points, but you have to understand the mechanics of what the "new wave" of bench press shirts are doing.

Calling it a "bench press" when you're using one of the denim 2-ply's is ridiculous.

If PL fed's started allowing the lifters to rack the weight and only deadlift from the knees, I bet we'd see some new world records, right?

Same thing. Instead of the rack holding the weight, it's the bench press shirt.

and if you saw how Mendy and Rych lost the weights, you'd understand. The bar went in a direction that is completely unnatural. You would just have to see it to understand.

 

[Scotsman]

I was moved to write again after watching Mendy dump half a ton on his ribs.

that's scary. and it is CAUSED by the shirt. I don't hate people who use the shirts, as i said, if i wanted to be a "top level competitor" then I would have to use the shirt and I would.

the point is that the federations in charge need to do something about this because it's getting ridiculous and more importantly, DANGEROUS.

Not trying to flame or anything but I think that the spotters are more at fault for Mendy's dump than the shirt. They just stood there while the weight started folding and waited until it was headed down before they reached for it. You obviously don't like shirts and that is just fine, but you can't ask a sport to de-evolve, shirts are in now because everyone wants to see huge presses. If you take away the shirts and the weights drop back you'll lose a lot of interest in an already vastly underappreciated sport. If you don't like the shirts then ignore the big lifts in the feds that allow the heavy shirts. Focus on feds like the USAPL and NASA that test their athletes and only allow single poly shirts.

Just my two cents worth.

Cheers,
Scotsman